UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

M.Sc. Lina Raffelsiefen

E-Mail: : lina.raffelsiefenuni-koeln.de

Telefon: +49 221 470 90347

For my PhD project, I am analysing stomach oil deposits of snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea) from East Antarctica. I study the biogenic deposits by means of inorganic, lipid and isotopic geochemical analyses. For example, I use GC-MS for general analysis of lipid compounds (e.g. carboxylic acids, n-alkanols, steroids and pigments) and GC-MS-IRMS for compound-specific δ‭¹³C analysis of selected lipid compounds. The samples are dated by ¹⁴C for temporal classification. 

The resulting knowledge of the snow petrel paleo-diet will be used to investigate and reconstruct Holocene environmental conditions, such as sea ice variability, in the coastal zone of the Southern Ocean.